LPD Heads Under Fire

Friday

Feb 14, 2014 at 12:01 AM

Lakeland Police Chief Lisa Womack is no longer in charge of the agency. Regardless of her ability or inability, it has been apparent for the past couple of months that she should resign out of consideration for the agency as a whole.Assistant Chief Larry Giddens has been named interim chief and is already under fire, as illustrated by The Ledger's front-page article, "LPD Interim Chief Still Under Fire," on Feb. 1, concerning the allegation from a retired officer that Giddens threatened him.In any management position, whether it is with a police agency, a large corporation such as Publix, or as editor or publisher of The Ledger, if one digs hard enough, one will find subordinates who dislike, have complaints against or are critical of the manager or supervisor.That is the case regardless of how great or how weak that leader is. Even the very best have individuals who dislike them.My experience in attending annual retiree conferences of a large police agency is that there have occasionally been one or two who show up and talk about what great officers they were and how lousy the agency or managers and supervisors were. Generally, those persons have been the opposite of their self-evaluations.After a couple of years attending, their griping and negative attitudes grow tiring to and are dismissed by the other 150 or so attendees. Eventually the complainers drop out. Unfortunately, their jaundiced views have limited their abilities to appreciate what they have.Social media friends tend to reinforce such attitudes. Friendly, positive persons continue to attend and appreciate that they had a great job and were rewarded with a wonderful retirement and warm relationships.The Ledger should give Chief Giddens the benefit of the doubt. Proper vetting of the complainant might be a good start.J.K. RUSSELLLakeland